Chair's Corner: To the Philly National Meeting and Beyond!

The Committee on Community Activities has been busy getting ready for the Philly National Meeting as well as National Chemistry Week! In fact, I’m excited to report this year will be NCW’s 25th anniversary and in recognition of this milestone, there will be a 25 Years of NCW Reception held for all Local Section NCW coordinators, all members who have volunteered at an NCW event, staff and governance during the upcoming National Meeting in Philadelphia on Sunday, August, 19th. The event will be from 6-8 PM at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) (315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106). The CHF exhibits will be open for viewing during the event.

CCA’s other happenings at the meeting include the Presidential Outreach Event and the Presidential Symposium. The theme for the Outreach Event is Exploring Our World through Chemistry and will be held Sunday, August 19th from 10 am – 2 pm at the Franklin Institute (22 North 20th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103). The topic of the Presidential Symposium is Communicating Chemistry and Public Engagement: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of National Chemistry Week. It will be held on Monday, August 20th from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm.

From October 21 – 27, ACS will celebrate National Chemistry Week [NCW], 2012. This year’s theme is “Nanotechnology: The smallest BIG Idea in Science. In keeping with the theme, CCA is partnering with the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Network). Four NISE will be featured in the NCW Edition of Celebrating Chemistry, our National Science Education Standards-aligned newspaper for elementary school students. All NISE activities can be viewed via the link provided on our NCW page.

Looking forward to next year, CCA will be focusing its efforts on developing the theme for the upcoming Chemists Celebrate Earth Day (CCED) 2013. CCED will be held on April 22, 2013 and will be marking its 10th year anniversary.

I hope to see you in Philly and that you will help us raise awareness about this year’s NCW theme! You can visit www.acs.org/ncw for complete information and resources (some info will be posted closer to the date).